


Shadows on the Wall

by orphan_account



Category: Persona 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-18 07:00:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14847960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: A late Akechi Goro birthday fic.





	Shadows on the Wall

It was just as well that no one knew where he was. He liked the moments of quiet afforded him in his hiding spaces. He could pretend very easily that the walls closing in on him were his long gone mother's arms holding him tight.

 

It was hours after everyone else had been found. It was hours after they started a new game, and then another. They'd forgotten about him, obviously. 

 

Just as well, he told himself. All just as well. 

 

Only when his little knees started to cramp and his throat screamed for water did he sigh and decide it was time to come out. He pried at the cabinet door. It held fast. Confused, he tried again. Didn't budge. Alarms went off in his head, but he controlled his breathing, as he learned to do ever since his mother left him. 

 

Alright, Goro, he told himself. Don't panic. Someone will come looking for you eventually.

 

Only, they hadn't. And they wouldn't. He knew. He knew without a doubt that more than forget about him, they deliberately ignored him. Heat pricked his eyes. He swiped his arm across the offending tears and set his face into as much of a smile as he could muster.

 

He wouldn't cry out. There was no reason. Better he disappear quietly and forever. If only he could. If only there were no bones in him, no sinew, no muscle, no blood. If only he could become the dust that now tickled his nose and made him want to sneeze. If only he could be as well and truly forgotten as he felt.

 

Just as he closed his eyes, the cabinet door rattled. Goro's heart leapt into his dry throat.

 

"H...Hello?" he called out, timid.

 

The door rattled again, harder.

 

"Hold on," came a muffled voice from the other side, a child's. 

 

Goro couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl. At his age, they all sounded the same.

 

Whoever it was struggled hard against the cabinet door, pushing and pulling so that the entire cabinet shook with Goro inside. He banged his head more than once. 

 

Finally, a soft click, and the door slid open. Goro didn't move to exit, but peeked carefully out from beneath his shaggy bangs.

 

A little boy about his own age, perhaps a bit younger, stood staring down at him with dark eyes and a mess of tumbling black hair. 

 

"I told them you were missing," said the boy. "This whole time I told them. Are you okay?"

 

Without warning, hot tears spilled across Goro's cheeks.

 

"I...I..."

 

He wiped furiously at his face, but more and more tears fell. Before he knew it, the boy took him by the hand and was patting at his head.

 

"There, there," said the boy, a tiny frown on his tiny face. "I've been looking for you a long time."

 

I've been looking for you a long time.

 

That's exactly what Goro thought when he saw him again, all those years later, looking much the same except for longer, more slender limbs and a useless pair of glasses on his handsome face.

 

Kurusu, Goro heard him called. Akira Kurusu.

 

"Have we met before?" he greeted, staring Kurusu dead in the eyes.

 

Kurusu didn't answer him. Didn't seem to remember Goro at all.

 

Just as well, Goro thought with a soft smile, knowing what he would do, what he had to do. Being forgotten was all just as well.


End file.
